Prairie State Wire

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) sees a similarity in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's attempt to pack the Supreme Court to what Republican lawmakers have done by refusing a hearing for President Barack Obama's nominee Merrick Garland, while rushing President Donald Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett through the process.

Roosevelt attempted to pack the court with his nominees in 1937 after facing ongoing rejection from the conservative-majority court for his New Deal agenda. His suggestion to appoint one new justice for every current justice over 70 years old, would have added up to six additional judges, but hit opposition from Congress. 

"Seventy-five years ago, we went through this," Durbin told The Washington Examiner. "And I think the Congress was correct in stopping this popular president named Franklin Roosevelt from that idea.” 

In October of 2020 Durbin said that Republicans have been packing the court for the past three and a half years, and bragging about it. 

"We are dealing with people on the court, packing into the court, with little or no qualifications for a long time," Durbin said in a NBC Meet the Press interview according to The Hill. “The American people have watched the Republicans packing the court for the past three and a half years, and they brag about it.” 

Durbin said that Republicans changed the rules and "completely reversed themselves" by proceeding with Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination after refusing to hold a hearing for Judge Merrick Garland in 2016.